The Christmas dilemma
Christmas is approaching, and families will be gathering; for those lucky enough to receive invitations to parties, the season is here. At these events, conversations inevitably shift to what we do in our daily lives, and for economic development professionals, the question is more complex than for most.
In a social setting, I am afraid that you are on your own! It does, however, lead to a thought process about where our roles make a difference and the skills that we need.
A structure to economic development work
A suggested approach is to consider the role of economic development by distinguishing between supply-side initiatives and demand-stimulation efforts, and once this is established, to work on key enablers.
The supply side work is probably easier to define. How do we improve the pitch that economic actors play on?
In every aspect of economic development, we need to take the utmost care not to tread on the private sector's toes. The private sector may play a perfectly reasonable role without us, thereby avoiding any state-funded intervention. As we know, however, in some cases, physical or demand challenges make some areas more profitable to service than others. Identifying solutions for areas not supported by the market is our role.
Our supply-side activity is likely to involve infrastructure, which increasingly involves digital access and electrical resilience. Supply-side work more typically involves skills, access to employment, science assets, living environment and land & property provision.
Demand-side work may involve stimulating grassroots activity in terms of the role of communities, business start-ups, access to information and aspirations. From a demand side perspective, this may be where the most direct impact can be exerted. There is, however, a broader and important perspective to consider on how we influence investors, support major businesses and help create clusters.
Key enablers might be considered the glue that brings all of this together and could be summarised as strategy, policy and finance activity
Strategy, policy and finance
The principles of economic development work may remain the same, but the macroeconomic context, the policies of different governments, and the financial structures that can be brought to bear continue to shift.
Economic development is, therefore, a profession that needs to regularly adapt its core supply-and-demand-side work to align with policy changes and to have a deep understanding of the policy and financial levers available.
Staff Skills
When economic development is considered in this light, there is a clear requirement for teams to have access to professional development which reflects their work and the context of a specific area.
Over 30+ years of economic development work, we have identified skills requirements in, amongst others, the following:
- Understanding of economic development
- How policy impacts on delivery
- Effective inward investment attraction
- Account management
- Creating competitive places
- Developing successful business cases
- Assessment, impact and evaluation
- Financial principles in economic development
- Delivering regeneration
It is also clear that the details of these skill requirements are specific to our profession and need to be developed accordingly.
Conclusion
Economic development is not easily summarised at a Christmas drinks party, but our role can be unbelievably interesting to those who immerse themselves. We have been fortunate to develop and deliver bespoke, interactive training in this space for 25 years.
If you have any thoughts on your team's skills development requirements, we would be pleased to discuss them with you – contact Nigel Wilcock at nwilcock@regionaldevelopment.co.uk to arrange a conversation.